Category Archives: war

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The Act of Killing (2012)

Review of the documentary The Act of Killing

In general I do not seek out movies which have shocking footage in them. I do not enjoy watching such footage even if it’s just make belief. So you will not make me happy with movies like Saw or similar ones. With a title like The Act of Killing you have an idea about what to expect. I decided to watch this since this isn’t fiction, it is a documentary about people who killed communists in Indonesia during the sixties. Within a year more than a million people lost their lives because of it. It was something I had not heard about and I thought it would be important to learn more. What makes this documentary unique though is that the executioners themselves talk about their acts openly. Continue reading →

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Obstruction 3: Pacific Rim (2013)

So because I was on a holiday and had some things on my mind afterwards I was not able to write my review for this obstruction earlier. Since I am very short on time (only 2 hours left) I’m going to have to keep this review short:

Review of Pacific Rim (2013)

We always think that aliens will come from the stars, but it turns out they come from a portal in deep Pacific. The plot (yes there IS one, in case some of you are wondering) is nothing we’ve never heard before but it’s played out quite efficiently here. the earth starts getting periodically attacked by huge monsters (Kauji – a term for Japanese monster movies), so humanity pulls together and builds equally massive robots (Jaegers) to fight back. Continue reading →

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The Heroes of Telemark (1965)

During my holiday we stayed at a house very close to the town of Rjukan. It’s a very small town, but during the second world war it was very important. The town had a power station and the nazis took over the plant to produce heavy water. The allies feared that this heavy water would be used to create a nuclear bomb and decided to make sure they were not able to. The powerstation is still there and we payed it a visit. It is now a museum and tells in detail about the history of the town and what happened during the second world war. The events that took place were the inspiration for the Heroes of Telemark. When I saw that this movie was sold there and was also told it was shot on location I just had to get it. Continue reading →

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Battleship (2012)

review

Recently I read an interview with Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg at Kid in the Front Row. They are the ones who wrote the Harold and Kumar movies and were also responsible for American Reunion. In that interview Jon Hurwitz said about review of movies: “reviews bring the reviewers own perspective before they walk into a movie” and I think that is often the case with some of the big action blockbusters that come out each year. Most of them seem to get trashed in reviews and I always wonder what the expectations were when going in to see it. When I go in to see them I usually expect big set pieces, lots of explosions, paper-thin characterisation and just a fun time. It’s the reason I’ve enjoyed movies like Prince of Persia, Battle L.A. and even the Transformer movies. So going into Battleship I had the same expectations. Does it deliver? Continue reading →

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Steamboy (2004)

Steamboy (2004) review

Steam. You might think the good old days when it was used to propel trains and boats are over and that it’s a technology of the past, but you’d be mistaken as it’s still used in nuclear powerplants to get the generators going. To me it’s amazing to think that such an old idea is still in use today. Steamboy is an anime in which steam is seen as the future and can be used for progress. Continue reading →

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Das Boot (1981)

review of Das Boot
My stack of of DVDs that I still have to watch has been big for ages. Some movies have been in it for years and Das Boot was one of them. I heard amazing stories about this film, but because of its length (close to 5 hours) I never made the time to sit down for it, until recently. Continue reading →

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Immortals (2011)

Despite knowing that this was a movie not a lot of people seemed to like (one look at Rotten Tomatoes makes that clear) I still was curious to see if this would be a movie I’d enjoy. I haven’t seen The Fall yet (but the DVD is waiting on my “to watch” stack and remembering that The Cell (which I saw while on holiday in Florida) was visually striking I wanted to find out if director Tarsem Singh managed to do the same with this movie. Continue reading →